The word "annually" was added to this story to more accurately reflect the district's projected $183 per-household tax increase for owners of home with a $300,000 taxable value, if the tentative millage passed. How much is too much for your household given what's at stake?

THE COST OF A MILLAGE FOR A $300.000 IS $456/ YEAR IF THE MILLAGE IS 1,52/1000 THE MATHEMATICS ARE SIMPLE AND ART AISNER SUGGESTION THAT IT IS ONLY $183 IS A MISTAKE, MISLEADING OR AN OVERT LIE. ALSO HE STATES " •$35 million: The costs of required maintenance at both Andover and Lahser High School should the bond fail" THIS IS NOT TRUE. BOTH SCHOOLS ARE IN EXCELLENT STRUCTURAL CONDITION PER OAKLAND COUNTY COMMISIONER AND BHSD BUILDING DEPARTMENT. MOREOVER, IF THE BOND PASSES THESE TWO BUILDING WILL CONTINUE TO FUNCTION FOR 4 YEARS. A BOND FOR 50 MILLION DOLLARS WILL COST THE COMMUNITY (4% FOR 30 YEARS) $4,9 MILLION DOLLARS, 4,9 MILLIONS TO SAVE $2,3 MILLION? THE BHSD BOND IS A ROBBERY IN DAY LIGHT.

SHW's assessment of the costs of bringing the existing buildings to code and providing the most needed enhancements is posted here: http://onebloomfieldunited.com/documents/LHAH_must%20do%20should%20do%202011.pdf

Why were the buildings given green light by both Oakland county and BHSD building department? Even if true, which I doubt, these buildings have to be brought up to date if you want students to use them for next 4 years? If they will be good for 4 years why not for 15 years? 30 million dollars is less than 80 million dollars, is it? Go to IA and check the floors, walls etc. Nothing fancy exept it is one of the highest rated school.

Elections or millages held in May are known as "stealth elections" because typically that is when politicians know that voter turn out at the polls is low historically and their requests for more tax money don't get much attention. Since the schools proposals and their bond requests have been such a controversial issue and have been defeated over and over again at the polls, Superintendent Glass and the BHSD Board should do the right and ethical thing which is put their schools proposal on the Nov 2012 ballot which is a presidential ballot year to get the greatest input from the community. But of course they won't do that because I guess they want a stealth election.

Duh,,,,,Charles you don't have to be a wizard to figure out more voter input occurs in Nov instead of May or Feb., there is rarely an advantage to an off cycle ballot. It costs more to hold , less people vote period. There is a bill pending in the legislature to limit non Nov ballots.....all for the right reasons. Any justification for a non Nov ballot is trumped up nonsense.

Linda--of course there would be higher turnout in November, but higher turnout for which side of the issue? I don't see the extra turnout being an advantage for one side or the other.

Of course, higher turnout doesn't necessarily equal higher awareness. Plenty of "occasional voters" (ie, only voting in major elections) don't have a clue about any ballot issue other than the President, Senate and/or Congress, and check off Yes or No on local issues without having the slightest understanding of them one way or the other.

A May election may have lower turnout, but at least those who show up will be (I hope) better *informed* about the proposal itself, on *both* sides (obviously the OBU folks will be pushing turnout of their base, as will the B20/20 people).

I think getting it over with is a huge advantage to having the election in May. One more class of students not caught up in the transition is worth it. The informed voters will turn out.

Please do not delay reopening the Andover site to students until 2015. Please do not forgo roughly $1.4 million in operational savings, as well as likely increases in construction materials.

Please lets settle this question now.

There is no point to continue discussion here when Mr. Gaga is insulting. Ignoring facts seems to be his specialty. Many schools, Harvard, Cambridge, Cranbrook, Roeper, Country Day, UM are all in old or very old buildings. Buildings do not create high scholastic achievements. BTW, I drive same car for 8 years and my wife for 12 years. Many in my neighborhood keep their cars for long times. It is cheaper to own a car long term than leasing cars. Newer cars are not better. Older car will get you where ever no less than new cars. Older school structures are better than new ones. In UM students prefer the old library over the modern 21 century library which is usually empty.

Dr. Barr--

I apologize if my earlier comment came off as rude, although seriously, general netiquette is to never use all-CAPS unless you intend to sound like you're shouting. For the record, my last name is Gaba, not Gaga.

You claim that "ignoring facts is my specialty"...which facts are you referring to, exactly, and in what way have I "ignored" them?

You're correct that *some* old buildings can remain in better shape than newer ones; unfortunately that doesn't appear to be the case when it comes to these two particular buildings. Plus, "in better shape" can have many meanings. There may be old castles in England that are *structurally* in better shape than brand-new buildings, but I certainly wouldn't want to heat them or have to try and run electrical cabling.

Regarding the car analogy, you've thrown out a classic strawman argument. I never said that cars should be disposed of quickly; I said that it's silly to state that just because maintenance work is estimated to hold up for 4 years it somehow means that it "should" be good for 15. If you were an architect or engineer who specializes in school construction, I'd lend your opinion on this topic much more weight, but as you're a physician, I presume that you're no better informed about construction maintenance than I would be about medicine.

What does the suggested bond mean? 1. We do not know yet the size of the bond. If it is $86,5 millions you must add 15-20% overhead, 2-5% legal and other fees. This will raise the cost of the bond to about $104 million dollars. 2. for a bond of only $86,5 millions the annual cost to BHSD will be at least $7,2 millions (4% for 30 years). 3. Does it make sense to pay $7,2 millions to save $2,3 millions? 4. A proposed millage of 1,52 is enormous. Many who live in low value homes will pay little, but the average home value (Taxable) in about 200.000 is $304 dollars on top of the property tax which is 59,09/ 1000 about $11,800 per average property. 5. The commitment to a bond is LONG term between 18-30 years for parents with kids inschool, and last long after your kids left home. 6. There is a sinking fund earmarked to maintain Lahser and Andover already in effect. 7. Achieving scholastic goals is not related to buildings. 8. High property tax deters new home buiers per realators. 9. Demographic changes must ocure and young families will be a majority in the next 10 years (there was no demographic research done so far by BHSD or assessment what BHSD folks CAN pay).10. The suggested 1,52 bond is not sufficient to cover the costs. It will bring 4,9 million while BHSD needs at leat $7,2 millions. Expect millage after millage after millage.

To compare the Lahser/Andover buildings to quality academic structures built in the pre-industrial age is comparing apples to oranges. Those older structures were built to entirely different construction standards when labor was cheap and the life expectancy of those building was 100 years or more. Lasher/Andover were built to post WWII standards where the life expectancy with ongoing maintenance is 50 years. At the point you reach that end of useful life, you have to put so much new capital funds into remediating those facilities to bring them up to current standards that it is less expensive to replace them. I know this as a practicing architect for 31 years and someone that has managed millions of square feet of commercial and institutional buildings on behalf of Fortune 500 owners. The Sinking Fund was designed to address necessary capital repairs during the useful life of the District's buildings. Lahser/Andover have exceeded their useful life and attempting to use Sinking Funds to prolong their life is a waste of the taxpayers money. The proposed renovation/reconstruction of Andover using a combination of high school designated sinking funds and supplementing with new funds is the most cost effective solution to the high schoool buildings problem.

Jeffrey Wagner, AIA

People should be aware of how sinking fund money has been used. All the district buildings are old, so significant roofing, HVAC and structural repairs have been required. For detail on how the $31 million collected to date has been used, please see:

http://onebloomfieldunited.com/documents/Sinking%20Fund.pdf

Repairs to the existing high school buildings, to bring them to code and provide the most needed enhancements, but without significant improvements to instructional space would cost roughly $56 million (http://onebloomfieldunited.com/documents/LHAH_must%20do%20should%20do%202011.pdf).

Everything said about the Andover Lahser structure ignores the fact that anyhow these building will have to serve the community for at least another 4 years. Why not scrap the unification and continue to use these buildings for another 10 years if we already fixed them? What is also ignored is the fact that two small schools are better that one big school in many ways. Chicago, New York and schools and all over the country dismantle big schools for smaller ones because SMALL SCHOOLS are SCHOLASTICALLY BETTER THAN A BIG SCHOOLS. We build the school for our students, not for their parents. We do not need a white elephant here. We need better scholastic achievements so that our students will not need "remedial" treatment as 21% of our students who went to college needed. If we have money, and we do have in the bank $71 million dollars, let us make the school year longer. International Academy has more school days, 41 days than BHS. What is there, folks, that you do not understand? Don't you want your child to have a diploma from a reputable place OR when interviewed have hin show only the picture of the Taj Mahal of Bloomfield Hills from which he graduated?

People seem to mistakenly believe that the sinking fund was meant to fix up our high schools. The sinking fund was meant to maintain ALL of our school buildings; three high schools (Andover, Lahser, and Model), three middle schools, four elementary schools, Wing Lake Developmental Center, International Academy, Bowers Academy, Fox Hills preschool, the administration buildings and the nature center.

I am eternally grateful to the community members who helped pass the sinking fund. I cannot imagine where we would be without it, but it isn't enough to solve our high school issue. I hope the voters in this community will help support the rebuilding of Andover as we move to a single high school future.

"we do have in the bank $71 million dollars"

Do we? Cite your source, and if true, can all of that money be used for these purposes, or is most of it mandated towards other expenses? Do you REALLY think that Rob Glass and the school board would be going through all of this effort if they truly had $71 million just lying around, able to be spent on whatever the heck they wanted?

"let us make the school year longer."

I actually agree on this; if feasible, I'd like to see a 200 day and/or year-round school schedule. However, that has absolutely *nothing* to do with the condition of the building. Adding 40 days to the school year just means that the students, teachers and faculty have to spend 40 more days in dilapidated buildings with (at least according to one attendee of the most-recent town hall meeting) animal feces falling through the ceiling.

Dr. Barr, I had a daughter graduate from the IA and I now have a daughter who is a senior at Lahser, thus I can speak authoritatively on what makes the two schools work. The IA draws from multiple districts and those students all have self-selected to be a part of that curriculum. There are no special needs students and no average or remedial students, so all programming is geared toward the high-acheiving population that is exclusive to that building. Andover and Lahser, while high-performing schools, have to address a student base with much broader needs. Yet, the student population at Lahser is barely larger than that at the IA. Thus, you have too few students at Lahser and Andover spread out over a broader base of programming, which is uneconomical and ultimately unsustainable. That is why Lasher and Andover need to combine - in order to PRESERVE the level of programming that has been historically offered. Otherwise, you are going to see the cutting of offerings such as foreign languages, A/P and I/B classes, etc. because there are too few students in each building to fill out the classes. It's simple mathematics.

J. Wagner

I have 5 kids who graduated from Andover. Nobody wants to turn BHS to IA, but we must learn from them. IA is a 600 student school. Small schools are better for special needs students who are frequently lost in large schools, there are less drop outs, less drug problems, better control of teacher performance, lowere cost of management. In NY change to small schools improved dramatically students scholastic achievements. if a big school has no electricity 1650 students go home. If a small Lahser has no electricity 650 go home. See NYT article: January 26, 2010," Are Small Schools More Effective Than Large Schools?". This is one article of many, There are recomendations of president Obama, Governor Snyder, Mr. Austin (MBE) etc. Why is BHSB obsessed with a unified school when the trend globally is to small warm personalized schools? Why do you, folks, defy any scientific research which underscores "students first". See the movie "waiting for superman" ask permission from the board.

At what point can we sue the district for being fiscally irresponsible?
Looks like the district has not listened to voters. We have shot this idea down for years.

Interesting that you say there is nothing fiscally irresponsible about it.
We gave the district money years ago to update / fix the two high schools to avoid this very issue. They have let our schools crumble apart so in the end, they get what they want.

I should also note that it doesn't really matter what "they" decided a decade ago when this silliness started. This is a new school board and a new superintendent, most of whom had nothing to do with the previous decisions.

Even if you were correct that "they" deliberately let the schools deteriorate, the fact remains that the schools HAVE "crumbled" (your term, not mine) and DO need to have a complete reconstruction one way or the other. If you want to try and sue someone who used to be on the school board a decade ago, be my guest, but that has nothing to do with the newer members, and it certainly doesn't change the condition of the school buildings *now*.

M and others, it is fiscally irresponsible to continue to attempt to deliver a broad curriculum in a building with 800 or less students. It's incredibly wasteful and the funding realities of public school districts in Michigan dictate that you either cut programming to maintain a school with 800 kids or consolidate the two building populations to be able to maintain and expand the breadth of programming that is currently offered in Bloomfield Hills. It's an either/or choice. If you wanted to keep the level of programming we have historically enjoyed and that the District is known for and still keep two small high schools, you would have to dramatically increase funding for instruction, which under Proposal A no district in the State of Michigan is allowed to do. Thus, your choices are as follows: 1) Leave the high schools separate at 800 students and cut programming or 2) Consolidate the high schools and maintain/expand programming, while at the same time reducing operating expenses.

J. Wagner

For reference purposes, a combined BHS high school will be smaller than the following notable high schools: Lake Orion, Clarkston, Troy, Troy Athens, West Bloomfield, Rochester, Rochester Stoney Creek, all 3 Walled Lake high schools, Grosse Pointe South, Northville, Novi, Ann Arbor Pioneer, Ann Arbor Huron, Saline.

A combined BHS high school will be of comparable size to the following notable high schools: Rochester Adams, Grosse Pointe North, all 3 Farmington high schools.

The notable schools that would be smaller than a combined BHS high school: Birmingham Seaholm, Birmingham Groves, Berkley, Dexter, Chelsea, East Grand Rapids, Forest Hills Central, Forest Hills Northern.

The list above makes up arguably the best public high schools in the State of Michigan and they range from 1000 students to 2400 students. A combined BHS high school will be 1600 students.

J. Wagner

You say "it is fiscally irresponsible to continue to attempt to deliver a broad curriculum in a building with 800 or less students. It's incredibly wasteful etc." For this reason you want to impose a levy of 7,200,000 dollars annually on the community to save $2,300.000 for BHSD. This are the holy mathematics of the Bonders.....The sinking fund which was supposed to maintain "three high schools (Andover, Lahser, and Model), three middle schools, four elementary schools, Wing Lake Developmental Center, International Academy, Bowers Academy, Fox Hills preschool, the administration buildings and the nature center" was for 50.000.000 dollars. It was issued about 12 years ago and sill there are about 35.000.000 dollars left in the bank. This is more than necessary to maintain upgrade Lahser and Andover. Some building such as Doyle should be demolished. The administration has enough space as is. What we see here slopy use of public money.

It would certainly help Dr. Baar's credibility if he'd write a check for all the activities provided to his children that current parents must pay for (We're probably better off than other districts). At this point he is merely someone that got his and now doesn't want to participate in the process. We moved to the district more than 5 years before our kids attended school and paid taxes because we knew we'd eventually get our turn. He and his children got their turn but now he just doesn't want to do anything that might or might not cost him tax money by subtrefuges like Board recalls and silly statements about staying in the same antiquated buildings for ten years. Yet he ignores the potential exposure of the district to state mandated school of choice because that won't cost him money. I'm glad he and his wife have older cars--rest assured that if they became obsolete and non functional he would wisely update them.

Is anyone analyzing the cost of the $1,2 million dollar "renovation" to the Doyle Center for a HUNDRED or so Administrators- compared to the "renovation /new build at Andover of $ 68-87 million for ONE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED students???
(...And what does this discrepancy tell us????? Isabella

Ms. Tucci: The cost and benefits of the administration were reviewed by the community deficit prevention committee and the project cost and benefits were deemed appropriate. The decision was supported by both B2020 members and non B2020 members as the right thing to do. Why would you not support spending money that will consolidate and shrink administration, has a 4 -5 year pay back and allow the district to be more efficient? If the argument is it should be spent on the kids, I agree and I would gladly invest $1.2M one time and recoup $250,000 year after year that can be spent on the kids.

Sadly, the people who are adamantly against any proposal the Board presents don't even have the information they need to make an informed decision. They are so used to saying NO. It frustrates me that a community like BH, with the majority being well-educated citizens, would not look at the options and decide what's best for our community and the education of our kids. Have they been in these buildings? Have they been to the surrounding districts? Go to a Town Hall Meeting, get the facts, have your questions answered, and let's come to an agreement before more kids get caught up in this mess.

As a former Lahser graduate I must say that the buildings are not in any shape to stand, let alone house more students. I'm surprised that the roof hasn't caved in yet. I remember in my four years at Lahser, any time there was a rainstorm there would be garbage buckets in the hall to catch the water leaking from the ceiling. Try to navigate the halls with those in your way.

While I really benefited from the shared classes between Andover and Lahser the time it took to catch the shuttle bus took away from class time. Especially during days when we had a full schedule (do they still do the All-Evens-Odds-Evens-Odds schedule?) I remember on days when we had the full schedule I would literally be in class for about 20 minutes between coming late on the shuttle and having to leave early to catch it (it really didn't help that I took three classes at Andover my senior year, but I digress). When you have a lot of students coming in late and leaving early it creates a disruption in the class and cuts the instruction time short. It was even more of a problem if the bus wasn't on time or if a class got out late and you missed the bus completely.

Consolidating the schools would solve that problem. Please start thinking from a students' perspective rather than the perspective of your wallets.